Plays include Mizlansky/Zilinsky or "schmucks," The Film Society, The Substance of Fire, The End of the Day, Three Hotels, A Fair Country, (an adaptation of) Hedda Gabler, Ten Unknowns and The Paris Letter. He is a Pulitzer Prize finalist for A Fair Country and a Guggenheim, NEA and American Academy of Arts & Letters Award winner. He is on the faculties of the New School's Graduate Drama Division and Stony Brook South Hampton's MFA in theater and film. His screenplays include The Substance of Fire and People I Know starring Al Pacino, both for Miramax. He created the ABC-TV drama "Brothers & Sisters" in 2006, after writing an episode of "The West Wing" ("The Long Goodbye").

Baitz is the author of Other Desert Cities which was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play, Lortel, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards, winning the latter.